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Peace through strength
Ralph R. Reiland is an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University and a local restaurateur. He can be reached at via e-mail.
Here's how the managing editor of the Arab News put it on the day the Iraqis pulled down the statue of Saddam: "America now rules the world, either directly or by proxy; and there is nothing anyone can do about it."
It was the same from the editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, Ramy Khoury: "A realistic reading of the policy must conclude that the sacking of Baghdad is designed to send signals to all other Middle Eastern and Asian regimes that the U.S. finds annoying, threatening, distasteful, worrisome, or even just a little strange.
"The new rules of the game are now being explained to the world through the televised display of Mesopotamian show-and-tell. If Washington merely suspects that terrorists may one day emerge from your land, or that you might in the future threaten your neighbors, you have only two options: You change course and shape up, or you are finished as a governing regime. If you behave as Baghdad behaved, defying the new rules of the game, you suffer the same fate as Baghdad is suffering."
And at the government-controlled Syria Times, columnist M. Agha, referring to "the Chief Cowboy, Bush," had this analysis: "We believe that this Cowboy is not able to light his cigar without putting the whole forest on fire!!!"
And again, from the Arab News, with American tanks rolling through Baghdad, the editors appeared to be getting the idea that Sept. 11 wasn't such a great idea: "Thanks, Osama, you've done us all about as much good as George W. Bush. The images of U.S. soldiers taking a picnic in the heart of Baghdad will haunt the Arab psyche for generations to come."
SADDAM IN NEVERLAND
That's not, of course, how that Dixie Chick and Saddam Hussein thought things were going to turn out. Delivering his televised address a few months back to mark the 82nd anniversary of the establishment of Iraq's army, Saddam declared that his nation had everything in place to deliver a death blow to "the wicked assistants of Satan" (that's us): "We are fully prepared for everything and for any eventuality. Our success is in the hands of Allah, and Allah shall repel the schemes of the infidels."
Everyone in Iraq was itching to fight "the inhabitants of night and the dark" (again, that's us), warned Saddam -- "every Iraqi man and woman, everyone in our people and every soldier in our armed forces, as well as every official and community leader."
And so, in the end, "the group of criminals," "the wretched aggressors" (again, us, both times) wouldn't have a chance in hell, said Saddam, not with "the weakness, or indeed near-collapse, of the United States economy," America's "confused" war planners, and Allah chipping in to help with the targeting: "Their arrows will go astray, while your arrows will hit them."
On all of those points, of course, Saddam got it wrong. Iraq wasn't prepared, not everyone showed up to fight, Rummy and Dubya weren't confused, and the bunker busters hit right on target.
THE FALLOUT
And now what? What's it mean when America wins, when it's not Vietnam, when there's an administration that's serious about preventing another Sept. 11, when the Arab News says that America now runs the world and nobody can do anything about it, not France, not the United Nations, not George Clooney, not Hizballah, not Nancy Pelosi? And what's it mean when Iran and North Korea think they're next?
Two recent news items might help with the answer:
I usually don't get much of my political insight from Osama bin Laden, but a while back he did make an insightful remark that probably hits the nail on the head when it comes to these quick turnarounds in Pyongyang and Tehran: "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse."
In this case, one might argue whether it's "like" or fear, but it doesn't matter. Either way, the nut cases are acting a little less nutty, a little less threatening, now that they've seen that all the peaceniks in Paris can't stop America from lobbing a bunker buster through the palace window. It's called peace through strength.
